Baby SEAL: Desk Duty
by catherinedoncaster1995
Summary: Steve and Catherine clash when despite being pregnant she wants to take part in a case. In true McRollins fashion, it takes a dangerous situation and a trip to hospital to make them consider the others opinion.


_**AUTHORS NOTE: So this was inspired by a post I saw on Tumblr by operationtidalwave… so credit to them… I accept prompts for StevexCatherine Mcrollins fics, Baby SEAL or otherwise, just leave it in a review or appreciate message.**_

**FIVE O HQ – 19:00**

Evening cases were the worst, you hadn't eaten since lunch or breakfasts me you were starving and tired but you had to work on in the knowledge you would not be going to bed until the following morning...

Steve could remember a time when he had tried to get her to stay upstairs when he had not known that it was his mother downstairs making eggs. Thinking it was an intruder, he had tried to convince her as she reached for a baseball bat that staying upstairs was on her best interests.

'Don't be a caveman I can coming with you.' Her eyes had been frustrated and almost laughed at him. He could clearly remember the scoff in her voice that had changed to sound as though she was talking to a child upon his next attempt.

'No you're not.'

'Then you are coming with me.'

He should have known then that raging with her over such things would have been pointless, but only a few months later, although they were in a different country, when's. Similar argument had taken place.

'Steve I'm going with you.'

'Absolutely not.'

'Well I wasn't asking for permission.'

It wasn't really an argument; it was more of a discussion, for Cath rarely shouted...  
Rarely, not never.

But as these kind of discussions became more frequent, it took less and less for one to turn into a row.

Steve let her have her independence, and he wasn't the jealous type, but he would be damned before he let her out herself in danger to prove a point.

She was pregnant, and while some things didn't change, when at work some things had to give.

"Hey Cath," he stuck his head around into her office, "we have caught a case…"

"Okay, I'll get my coat." She stood out from behind her desk, lifting her jacket off of the back of her seat.

"Cath you can't come, you are pregnant." He looked at her pointedly, "it's too dangerous."

"Yeh," she pushed her arms in her jacket, "I'm a pregnant woman who could kick the ass, or shoot the ankles off, any psycho you end up chasing. And in not THAT pregnant," she insisted somewhat indignantly, "it's not like I'm waddling all over the place, I'm not even showing yet..."

She yanked her jacket on and walked out from behind the desk.

"Cath," Steve out his hand that held his phone out towards her, palm up as though that was going to stop her, "we were agreed, desk duty, and nothing dangerous..."

"A crime scene is not dangerous." She snapped.

"I disagree.

She scoffed, "of course you do."

"Catherine!" He entered the office and reached to put his hand over her badge, pulling to towards him along the desk as she made to grab it, staring at him sharply.

He widened his eyes, "you aren't coming to the crime scene, the shooter could still be there..."

"Then I'll wear body armor." She put her hands on her hips.

"Catherine..."

"Or I'll wait in the car." She stated, "or I'll wear a bomb disposal suit if it is going to make you stop being overprotective and just let me do my job!" She yanked the badge out from under his hand and made to put it on her hip.

He was quicker, spinning it out of her palm and catching it in his other fist, pushing his phone into his pocket.

"Give me that..." She muttered, stretching up to try and swipe the badge from his grip but he held it in his fist near his shoulder, causing her to stretch up further and half jump to try and get it back.

"Cath you are three months pregnant." He stated, outing his free hand on her hip and pushing her as gently as he could to stand back flat on the floor, "we agreed that you were not going to do anything dangerous."

"There isn't much more deadly about a crime scene, where someone has ALREADY been killed, than there is here!" She snapped, "I could be shot walking to the shop, I could be dragged under a car when someone tries to mug me,"

"Don't do that..." Steve closed his eyes, "don't-"

"I could be caught up in a hostage situation when going to the bank." She snapped, "I am coming with you. I will wait behind the yellow tape if there is any chemicals spillages or until you cast your eye over it and say it is safe." She yanked the badge from his hand, "and seen as it is going to be me who has to right up the report about this case I might as well get to see it!"

With that she turned put her badge on her hips, checked her gun and marched past him.  
Steve turned in the same instant, "Catherine you aren't coming!"

"Yes I am!"

"You aren't getting in that car."

"Then ill drive myself."

"Catherine you are carrying my baby..."

"I am also carrying _my_ baby," she spun to face him, "and seen as it is _my_ baby and I am very much capable of looking _after myself_, as _you_ well know, I will decide at what point things get to dangerous for me and MY baby." She cried, "I'm coming with you Steve, I am _going_ to do my job."

"It is too dangerous, we agreed on desk duty." He snapped, "You are _staying_ here!"

His voice had risen to a shout and it took both of them by surprise.

Catherine recovered quickly, her face hardening as his did.

"No. I'm. Not."

"Hey." Danny stuck his head around the door, "you ready to go?"

His eyes narrowed when he sensed the tension in the room, "err... Yeh..."

"We are coming." Catherine holstered her gun, the action causing the fabric of her tank top to stretch around her, showing what only Steve would have had the knowledge to notice was the tiniest of curves on her belly, badly visible to the naked eye, swelling out just below her naval.

She turned and strode past Danny out into the main corridor, the door slamming behind her.

The detective stepped out of the way to avoid the door swinging back out wards and hitting him, as Steve locked his jaw in angry frustration at Catherine and marched after her.

"Hey what's going on-okay then?" Danny held his hands up as without a word Steve stormed after Catherine, not even glancing at his partner.

**HONOLULU STRAIGHT HIGHWAY – 19:10**

Danny sat in the back middle seat of the Camero, staring out and forwards as Steve, hands locked on the wheel, moved up the gears deliberately, jaw locked, eyes unmoving form the rode.

The sound of sirens felt distant to his ears, and it was the only noise in the car apart from Danny tapping his palms on his knees as he leant forward in his seat, glancing between Steve the driver, and Catherine in the passenger seat.

She was sat with her arms folded, staring out of the passenger window, her head incidentally turned away from Steve.

Her eyes didn't move from the speeding sunset scenery, jaw locked and neck straining as like Steve she swallowed a string of profanities that expressed their frustration at one another.

"So err," Danny started, 'ignoring the tension in the car, and the fact that you are driving safely yet quickly..."

"I always drive safely." Steve almost snapped.

"No you don't," Danny stated, "but that's not the point..."

"I drive safely!" Steve insisted, turning his head back to raise his eyebrows at Steve.

"Eyes on the road commander," Catherine commented dryly without looking away from her window, "you don't want to wrap this car around a tree like a bagel with your pregnant girlfriend as a filling."

Steve's head whipped around, hands clenching on the wheel, "oh you're talking to me now are you? After ten minutes of sitting in the car with your arms folded like a teenager, _very_ mature Catherine..."

"Anyway!" Danny cut him off as Catherine clenched her teeth, not looking in Steve's direction yet clearly extending two fingers to him in her mind, "Kono and Chin were first on the scene, she says that the shooter shot the banker, took the money and fled on a black sports bike, they are going over CCTV now..."

"So the killer fled the scene, how original." Cath folded her arms tighter, voice clipped, "at least you can relax now Steve, he isn't going to jump out and shoot me..."

His eyes snapped to her in anger and Danny sighed, sitting back in his seat and rubbing his hands over his face as she continued bitingly, "and he probably hasn't lined the room with explosives or a poisonous gas .."

"I am not going to apologize to you for wanting you to be safe." Steve snapped, "We agreed on desk duty..."

"We agreed nothing would change." Her voice was sharp but quiet, her fingers flexing around the inside of each elbow.

"Steve…" Danny leant forwards, eyes locked on something out of the front window.

"I said nothing would change within reason!" Steve snapped at her.

"Steve!" Danny shouted.

"What?"

"A guy, with a gun, on a black sports bike, and a bag full of cash!"

Danny pointed forwards.

There, racing towards them, score sing down the wrong way down their lane of traffic, was a man on a black sports bike, shooting at cars to get them to swerve out of his way, being pursued by Kono's red Chevrolet.

The rider had a bag on his back obviously not done up properly, as loose bills were fluttering in the breeze.

The sound of horns blaring and tires screeching filled the sir over their sirens and Kono's approaching.

The man on the bike raised his gun, shaking slightly on the bike, towards the approaching Camaro with its sirens.

His hand twitched around the gun and Steve, just as the man on the bike zoomed closer, released one hand from the steering wheel and put his arm across Catherine's back, shoving it between her spine and the seat, bending her forwards so she was no visible from the outside of the car.

Danny produced his gun.

_Bang_!

The man on the bike fired his pistol.

The bullet crashed through the windscreen of the Camaro hitting Steve in the shoulder and slamming him back in his seat, both hands flying off of the wheel.

"Steve!" Danny shouted, firing out of the windshield at the biker who screamed towards them.

Catherine grabbed the wheel, pulling it sharply towards her, signing the Camaro around.

The biker crashed into the side of the Camero, pushing into Danny's door, before rolling over the top, bike and all.

Catherine removed her seat belt, swung her legs up and slammed one down, knee on the gear stick, into the driver's foot well.

She braked hard, and the Camaro skidded to a halt just as, with a sickening crunch, the bike and its rider slammed down beside the car on the Tarmac pavement, one hundred dollar bills floating down from the sky like snow.

Kono and chin swung around in front of them, climbing out of the car and approaching the biker with guns raised, although it became clear the robber wasn't going anyway ever again.

"Steve..." Catherine knelt up in her seat, pressing her fingers to his neck, one hand over the wound on his shoulder.

He groaned and muttered something unintelligible, "cthrne... Nrg..."

"Steve... Steve can you hear me?" Catherine demanded, trying to stop the rising tears in her eyes, "Steve!"

"Ugh, Catherine." Danny sat up straight in the back seat, ringing his neck, "Catherine are you okay?"

"He's been hit..." Catherine's hands were shaking on Steve's wound, "Steve… Steve..."

Chin wrenched open the driver's side door and looked at Catherine, knelt on her own seat, desperately trying to wake up Steve, cuts on her forehead due to the broken and shattered glad of the windshield, Steve's blood on her hands.

Danny looked more winded than anything.

"Paramedics are on their way..." Chin put his hand over hers firmly, "Catherine you can let go now... Catherine!"

"It's my fault..." She was rambling, "my fault... I shouldn't have come, he put himself in danger to protect me and he got shot for it..."

"He will be fine." Chin said firmly trying to soothe her as tears fell down beech cheeks. He could feel her palms quivering under his one, "Catherine let go..."

"I can't."

"Cath." Danny gently leant between the seats, putting a hand on her heaving shoulders as an ambulance and several HPD cars screamed to a halt around them, "Cath he's in good hands, let go and her you and the little one checked out..."

Catherine couldn't tear her eyes away from Steve face, his eyes closed tilted towards her, face cut more deeply than hers from the shattering glass which occurred as the bullet crashed through the windscreen into his chest.

Paramedics were there then, leaning around Chin as he stepped back, "he's got a bullet wound to the shoulder, pulse is strong but he has lost consciousness..."

A man with latex gloved hand was prying her hands off of Steve's chest, and they fell into her lap heavily as they began checking his pulse and cutting away his shirt, pushing padding over his wound.

"We need to get him out of the car." One paramedic said, eyes casting around, "Get John to look over everyone else, no one else seems that badly damaged..."

The rest seemed to pass in a blur for Catherine then.

She was aware of them moving Steve from the car, aware of Danny climbing out and gently wrapping his arms around her as she was steered towards a bench.

A paramedic made to check the scratches on her forehead but she pushed her way from Danny's arms, running as best she could over to the ambulance where they were loading Steve on the stretcher.

"I'm going with him." She declared.

Chin knew better than to argue, "Danny will meet you there, I'll stay and make sure this gets wrapped up properly, hey," He caught Catherine wrist gently, "make sure you get yourself and the little one looked at alright?"

She swallowed and nodded.

Chin stepped back as the ambulance doors were slammed shut.

**TRIPLAR MEDICAL HOSPITAL – 20:30**

Catherine laid on her back, hands by her head on the thin pillow of the hospital bed.  
A particularly large cut to her forehead has a small bandage on it, strapped in her hair line.

She had her head tilted towards the screen at the side of her hospital bed, a doctor running an ultrasound wand over her belly.

Danny stood at the side of the bed, only one un-bandaged scratch on his cheek.

"Everything looks good Miss Rollins." The doctor smiled, "I will get this printed for you..."  
"Can I see Steve?" Catherine stared up at him intently, "please it's been nearly an hour..."

"Commander McGarret has just come out of the procedure to remove the bullet from beneath his shoulder blade. I will see if..."

"Excuse me." A nurse stuck her head around the door, holding a clipboard; she walked in, "Miss Rollins? Commander McGarret is just coming around from the anesthetic, he is asking for you."

Catherine pushed herself up on her arms and then swung her legs over the side of the bed.

"He's in room 576." The nurse smiled gently, "he's still a bit groggy but, more or less demanding to know where you are, to see you are okay."

Cath smiled sadly and swallowed, looking to the doctor who she performed her ultrasound, "You have been very lucky Miss Rollins. From now on you are forbidden by your doctor form being involved in car chases, I recommend desk duty, if there is such a thing at Five O." He handed her the discharge papers, some tissue to wipe her stomach with, and the black and white ultrasound picture.

"There will be from now on." Danny smiled, "the boss will make sure of it."

Knowing that it was the infamous Steve McGarret he spoke of, Catherine's doctor chuckled, "I'm sure."

He walked from the room and the nurse stepped aside to let him.

Catherine hopped off of the bed, her need to see Steve overtaking her want to clean herself up. She decided she could do it on the way.

"I'll wait," Danny touched her elbow to steady her, "I'll let you go see Super SEAL on your own first... But..."

"What?" Catherine felt her face fall.

"Just..." Danny stroked her shoulder, "cut him a bit of slack hey?"

"_Cut him some slack, _really Danny..." She sighed shortly.

"I know it's hard, giving up the last big of gun how independence you have... But proving a point, trying to keep everything the same, it isn't going to work, and it isn't work risking your baby for Cath."

"I know." She sighed heavily, "I know I just..."

"I know." Danny mimicked her, smiling slightly, "and I also know he can be an overprotective Neanderthal when he wants to be..."

She chuckled quietly and stretched up on her toes to kiss his cheek, "thanks Danno."

**STEVE'S EXAM ROOM – TRIPLAR MEDICAL HOSPITAL - 20:30**

Steve's hospital room was dimply lit, the lamp hanging over his head being the only source of light in the room, beside that leaking in through the open doorway and through the window which was in the wall between it and the corridor.

Steve was lying on his back, an IV in his arm, eyes staring at the ceiling.

She could see a thick bandage around his shoulder and across the top right of his chest.

"Hey..." She walked forwards into the room, wiping the remains of the jelly from her belly and tossing the paper towel in the bin to her right.

His head spun around, letting out a long relieved breath as his eyes moved over her body, checking for any outward damaging, "Cath... Are you alright? What about..."

"I'm fine." She said gently but politely, walking over to his bedside, "apart from this scratch on my forehead there is nothing wrong with me, and the baby is in no sign of distress," she couldn't help but let out a tiny smile as she lifted the ultrasound picture from the stack of discharge papers she held to show him.

Steve took the photo form her, reaching across with his IV hand, ignoring the tug it made in his flesh, to hold it above his face so from his half elevated position he could see it better.

"You had a scan?" He asked her.

"Yeh, I promised Chin I would, to make sure everything was okay..." She sighed, eyes on the hoot, "but they are fine, seems they cope with adventure about as well as we do."  
Steve couldn't help but smile at that, a tiny grin of pride that quickly faded, as the awkwardness they hadn't addressed yet filtered in between them, as he lowered the photo to his lap, hand still around it.

"What about you?" She asked, looking him over.

He had scratched to his face, a couple on his neck, and the bandage was visible from under his hospital gown on his shoulder.

"I've been shot before," he reminded her quickly, "so it's nothing major..."

"Steve." Her eyes closed and she cut him off, looking down as the feeling of being helpless and responsible, when he was out colds and bleeding in the Camaro returned.  
His eyes turned to her as she shook her head, tightening her grip on the paperwork she held, "don't... Just tell me, please."

He watched her face carefully and nodded, picking at the edge of the rough blanket which was over him, "the bullet was lodged under my shoulder, and although I was coming around by the time I got in here, they had to knock me out again to get it out. Oh and apparently I've fractured my elbow," He lifted his IV arm, the hand of which still the ultrasound photo, to show her the bandage around his joint, "that's a new one, I don't think I've done that before..."

Part of her wanted to bite back that there couldn't be much of him that he hadn't injured, who rather made her point that he was not qualified to tell her how to look after herself, when in fact he was more dangerous and injury prone than she was.

But instead she found herself saying, "Maybe you didn't notice before, they say your knees and elbows are like your fingers and toes, you can injure them almost sixty times in your life and most of the time you won't notice..."

What the hell was she talking about?

Her sentence trailed away and she let out a breath, looking down and bending over the edge of her discharge papers as she set them on the mares next to his hips, pressing her hands to it as her shoulders fluttered, the awkwardness setting back in.

"I've been officially told to be on desk duty by the medical world." She tapped a finger on the yellow document atop the stack of papers, "that should make you happy."

"It doesn't make me happy if it makes you unhappy, you know that."

Their words were too short, and although what he said was caring, it wasn't the words they both wanted to hear.

She swallowed.

Suddenly, through the silence, Steve shifted his hand nearest hers to rest over the backs of both her palms, thumb moving over her knuckles softly, "I never want you to think that I don't trust you to look after yourself and out baby... What I said about it being 'mine', that was wrong and... I don't want you to think that..."

"I know you don't, I don't think that." She said gently, sniffing as she felt tears prick the corners of her eyes, "It's the physical changes I'm struggling with." For some unions reason her voice broke and the tears welled up faster, she gritted her teeth and clicked the heel of her boot against the floor, lifting one hand to her face, "and now I am going to cry for no reason..."

"Hey..." Steve's soft voice came as he lifted his left arm off of the bed, wrapping it gently around her back and pulling her closer to his bedside, broad hand on her back, "Catherine I understand..."

"I know and that's the problem." Steve began to realize her frustrated and upset tone were directed at herself for the tears she couldn't stop, and that they had more to do with her being pregnant than what they were flaking about, Catherine wasn't a crier."  
"I thought pregnancy would be the one... The one 'mission' of you like where you would be hopeless but no! You are caring and you fuss over me and if your SEAL buddies could see you know they would think you had gone soft and I'm just..." She shifted, "today I was angry at you because while this is _our_ baby you can coast on through life still being head of Five O but I have to put things aside, be put aside from the team, in order to have this baby and..."

She was fiddling with the cuff of his hospital gown now, "and I felt so stupid for it because I knew coming today was dangerous I just... I didn't want to be left behind again, and because I was there you got shot and it's my fault..." She sniffed, her voice dropping ever quieter, "I put our baby in danger because I am struggling with the idea of being less and less capable in Five O..."

There was silence for a moment as she sighed heavily, wiped her eyes, and said nothing, his broad hand simply rubbing her back, eyes staring at her downcast ones.

Something twisted low in his stomach.

"Are you unhappy Cath?"

"No..." She gasped, shaking her head and finally looking at him, "I love this baby and I love you but it's... Knowing things will physically change for me, when I've always been like this... That's the hardest part."

Having known her his whole life as a strong and phish silly very capable woman, he knew that knowing that she would not be able to run, jump, fight and work as she had always done, was the biggest hurdle for her.

"Well..." He stroked her arm, "you'll always be a part of my Five O, and if anything you have got the most important task of all haven't you..."

She smiled a watery grin as he bent over as best he could, holding her close to the side of the bed, to place a soft kiss to her belly through her shirt.

As he lay back she sniffed happily, "and you will be able to join me on desk duty for the customary week commander."

"Ugh don't remind me." He teased and she laughed but yawned, rubbing at her eyes. It had been a long and stressful day.

"Is Danny still here, he can take you home..." Steve looked past her to the door, but she was shaking her head.

"I'm not going anywhere sailor, I need to make sure you are going to get some rest, I know your head is groggy from the anesthetic, because you've got a face on about it." She ran a hand over his forehead softly.

Steve scowled at the mention of it, "I hate that stuff..."

"I know." She bent to kiss his forehead.

"Come here..." He murmured, flexing his arm around her back.

She smiled and climbed atop the hospital bed with him, settling against his side, mindful of the bandage of his shoulder, just in front of her face as she rested her head on his chest.

He stroked her back, his other hand with the IV in moving to settle on her hip, thumb stroking her nearly flat belly.

"You know the nurse who treated me was called 'crystal Beth.'" Steve murmured.

Cath laughed tiredly, snuggling closer, "seriously?"

"Yeh." Steve rested his head against the top of hers, "so that rules out the name Beth for our little girl..."

"It rules out the name altogether because our baby is a boy, we have had this conversation." She mumbled, "I've got mothers intuition and I worked in navy intel so..."  
Steve chuckled and dropped a soft kiss on the crown of her head, leaving his lips there, breathing in her scent as they both drifted off to sleep.

It was then Danny entered, stopping himself short just as he came into the room.  
Smiling and chuckling to himself he shook his head and retreated, gently closing the door to Steve's hospital room and letting them rest peacefully.


End file.
